Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Thomas Lemar turned down a deadline day transfer to the Gunners because he wanted to stay at Monaco.

The France international was reportedly the subject of a £92million bid from Arsenal as they looked for a replacement for Alexis Sanchez, who had been approached by Manchester City.

However, in the end neither deal went through as Arsenal claimed they did not have enough time to get the Lemar signing over the line.

It has been claimed that while Monaco accepted Arsenal’s bid for Lemar, the player himself did not want to move to the Emirates Stadium as he favoured a move to Liverpool.

Wenger did not comment on rival interest from the Reds, but confirmed that in the end Lemar’s preference was to stay with his current club instead of making the switch to north London.

‘The player has chosen to stay in Monaco,’ the Frenchman told beIN Sports.

‘You do not want to talk too much. You have to respect that that happens.

‘I know we live in the era of transparency but at some stage to respect everybody you have to not talk too much about that.’

Wenger also discussed Sanchez’s situation after speculation that he was close to finalising a transfer to Manchester City on deadline day, appearing to confirm reports that Arsenal blocked the deal once they struggled to land Lemar as his replacement.

He added: ‘Look I cannot tell you everything that happened because after that when you decide to let a player of (Sanchez’s) calibre go, you need to replace him because nobody would understand that you let the player go and when you cannot do it, you keep the player and make a financial sacrifice because what you want, at the end of the day, is to have a team who has a good potential and top quality.’

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